The way that Tariq and his family explained it to me was that
part of the 'way' was modesty in appearance and action, which
means regular bathing, clean clothes, modest behavior and living
according to your means - and like the commandment of Moses
states, not coveting what is not yours. I have nothing against
provding the knowledge, and teachers to improve sanitation - but
that can be as simple as making a homestead methane generator
that takes sewage and other organic wastes and 'digesting' them
using microbial action and collecting the resulting methane to
use for cooking and heating and even generating electricity, and
using the humanure byproduct as fertilizer. That is useful - it
teaches them to collect and use waste products that otherwise
might become a health problem. Teaching them modern farming so
they can feed themselves, or the use of aquaculture [ancient
romans and chinese 'fish farmed' using a multi pool system in a
form of closed ecology] to provide food. We don't need to gift
them with an infrastructure that they do not know how to maintain
nor that they need [electricity is best generated on a farmstead
or village level - copper wires are EXPENSIVE!] is bogus - it is
a power trip on our part - Look how Great the US Is! We Give You
All of The Modern Conveniences, Bow Down and Worship Us!

Let them tell us what they want and need, don't just ride in on
our white horse and dictate to them what we are going to give
them. One of the things that the Taliban was founded on was that
many things that the western world provides is modern
conveniences at the cost of the soul. Whether or not the overly
strict enforcement of the policy is good or evil, it is their
country, not mine. I won't assume that the Afganis want or need
anything other than clean water, the ability to farm in peace,
and conduct their normal daily business in the way that they have
done for hundreds or thousands of years. It simply isn't my
place. Yes I would like to see certain restrictions eased [like
the one about the widows not getting food - that is certainly
against anything I remember reading in the Koran, and access to
radios/televisions] but it really isn't MY place to make these
decisions.
margali

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The Quote Starts Here:
> To address all this. I don't know if simplicity is a tenet of Islam,
> though devotion to God is.
> Clean water is certainly a plus. As for technology personally I feel like
> it should be truly beneficial and not a vanity. It should contribute to
> essential skills, reinforce/or educate on whatever morality one engenders
> and most of
> all justly and unbiasly inform people so that they can make better
> informed decisions. As a media of knolwedge and wholistic betterment I
> support technology. But as a media for vanity, unjust propaganda,
> time-wasting through vain entertainment, I do not support technology.
> Technology is nuetral it is truly just the way in which something is
> done. But we need to consider the implications, ramifications and meaning
> behind how we choose to use such technology